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Inside Great Scotland Yard: A Police HQ Converted into a Luxury Hotel by Indian Billionaire

Monday, 8 April, 2019 SURFACES REPORTER | 5 Min Read |

The Great Scotland Yard, which used to be a home of London’s most famous criminals, is now open for super-rich people to stay. Headquarter (HQ) for Metropolitan Police in Whitehall in central London from 1829 to 1890, the Great Scotland Yard is converted into a luxurious hotel by M. A. Yusuff Ali Kader - an Indian billionaire and business magnate.

The man behind the overhaul of this hotel, Mr Ali hails from Kerala and is the chairman of The LuLu Group. The hotel is revamped to cater to the wealthy people who can pay 10,000 pounds for a single night. The refurbishment of a luxury property showcases the heightened Indian investments in the United Kingdom’s housing market even in the wake of extreme pound crises.

Let’s Peep into The Great Scotland Yard Turned into A Luxury Hotel

The Great Scotland Yard, which has now become a luxury hotel, features more than 150 bedrooms and 11 suits. And some of the rooms provide expansive and stunning views of Nelson’s Column, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. Westminster Abbey, a large, mainly Gothic abbey church, has witnessed many royal weddings. It is also a place that testifies the stay of several emperors and prime ministers of the nation.

The lavish building boasts a gymnasium, library, a signature restaurant supervised by Chef Robin Gill who trained under the famous chef Marco Pierre White, dark whiskey bar and a big conference room for corporate events. It also features items such, a large glass chandelier which is a nod to the Forty Elephants and the 19th-century gang of female robbers who broke windows of the shop to steal jewellery.

The whisky room at the hotel

As it was an HQ of the Metropolitan Police, some of the cells where criminals were housed in the past were also reportedly converted into elegant bedrooms. The interior of the building was designed perfectly while preserving the essence of the original structure.

Stepped in British political history, the interior of the hotel still includes the references to its famous police and military past. In the glass and metalwork, one can notice the use of emblems, shields and historic details. Also, one can see old military uniforms and the artwork by prisoners there.

The rooms of the refurbished structure are premium and the tariff for each room per night is around as high as Rs 9 lakh (around $13,000). This is one of the most luxurious 5-star hotels to be ever built in the UK. The Hyatt Group will operate the hotel as the UK's first Unbound Collection hotel. In December 2013, Galliard Homes sold the leasehold of the building to raise funds. The leasehold was bought by Yusuff Ali from the company in the year 2015 for Rs 1000 crore (£110 Million).

The retail conglomerate headed by Yusuff Ali- LuLu Group, runs the biggest mall of India located in Kochi, the financial hub of Kerala. Even the company also operates more than 130 retail supermarkets labelled, ‘Lulu Hypermarket’ across India and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries.

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